NEW ON STEAM · 38% OFF
How to Fish
At a glance
How to Fish game facts
Steam store information checked 2026-08-27。- Studio
- Dazed Games Published by Dazed Games
- Release
- Aug 20, 2026 Released
- Official genres
- Action · Casual · Indie · Simulation
- Play mode
- Single-player · Multiplayer · Online co-op
- Desktop platforms
- Windows
- Steam Deck
- Verified Verified for Steam Deck
- Controller
- Full support
- Steam features
- Achievements · Family Sharing
- Languages
- 16 listed languages English, French, Italian, German
What that means for your setupHow to Fish is developed and published by Dazed Games and landed on Steam in August 2026 as a 1-4 player physics-based fishing simulator in the Action, Casual, Indie, and Simulation space. It launched on Windows with both single-player and multiplayer online co-op play modes and is rated Verified for Steam Deck, with full controller support and Achievements plus Family Sharing available. Language support is impressively broad: full audio and text across English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Turkish, and a Ukrainian bundle. At $4.95 during its 38% launch discount, the only compatibility detail that actually affects buying is that there is no console version, so your playground is Windows or a Verified Steam Deck.
If the phrase "a fishing game with shotguns" makes your ears perk up, How to Fish is the kind of silly, polished little romp where you cast a line, miss the fish, and somehow end up sniping a seagull carrying your buddy's corpse. It leans into its own absurdity so hard that the loop of casting, trick-shots, gambling earnings, and bossing wild aquatic creatures snaps into place within a single short session. Solo or in a four-player co-op crew, it reads less like a meditative lake sim and more like a buddy-action mini-festival wearing a fishing hat.
What the game actually feels like
Crash-landing setup: the campaign kicks off in media res with a drunken boating accident that strands your crew on a strange island, and the game wastes almost no time before handing you quests, gear progression, and your first boss to chase toward the next island.
A short, punchy progression arc where you begin broke and bare-handed, earn coin by fishing, killing fish, hunting rare variants, and nailing trick shots, then funnel that money into sharper rods, heavier weapons, and luckier gambles across progressively meaner islands.
Trick-shot feasting is the real hook: hitting ricochets, mid-air no-scopes, sniper lineups across rocks, or bioluminescent boss arenas multiplies your payout and rewards a goofy physics sandbox over twitch aim, which is why the buddy co-op constantly devolves into friendly fire and leaderboard braggadocio.
A risk-and-reward side loop of gambling winnings at in-world casinos and fish stalls so the calm between boss fights has a roulette-spike tension that several reviewers call out as the secret sauce of the late-game pacing.
What early players are seeing
What is landing
- A wildly positive Steam rating hovering around 96% across more than twelve thousand recent reviews suggests the chaos-first pitch lands for almost everyone who buys it, not just a fringe audience.
- Reviewers consistently describe it as 'goofy as hell' and a 'best aim trainer I own,' with several hundred hours of Steam playtime logged by entertainers who keep returning to chase trick-shot leaderboards and one hundred percent completion.
- The most-repeated compliments are the gunplay feel, the breezy physics, and the co-op-friendly vibe that lets friends grief each other harmlessly, with multiple notes that it runs on basically anything from a steam deck to a decade-old laptop.
What still needs watching
- The campaign is widely described as short and one-and-done; players who finish the island ladder often note there is no real post-game progression, new islands, or gear upgrades, so value depends on how much you replay trick-shot runs with friends.
- Early co-op had a hard review citing strangers joining lobbies they were not invited to and breaking sessions, though the developer publicly responded and that reviewer flipped to recommended, meaning multiplayer privacy is something to test on day one if you care.
Is How to Fish worth buying now?
Current decision
Worth tryingIt is a cheap, Verified-on-Deck, short-but-very-polished co-op romp with an overwhelming positive recent review signal, and its real risks (short length, thin endgame, occasional co-op gremlins) are honest rather than deal-breaking, so it earns a Worth trying tag while you weigh the discount window.
Who this is for
A good fit if you…
- Players who want a 30-to-90-minute palate cleanser between heavy games, especially with a friend on the couch or in a Discord call.
- Co-op crews of two to four looking for a low-rules, high-shenanigans game where friendly fire and trick-shot rivalries are the whole point.
- Curious Steam Deck owners hunting Verified cozy-yet-chaotic games that travel well and run easily on handheld hardware.
- Gift-buyers looking for a sub-five-dollar surprise that almost universally lands as a feel-good recommend.
- Solo completionists who like ticking quest chains, hunting rare fish variants, and squeezing a 100% out of a compact indie before moving on.
Wait if you…
- You want a fishing sim with deep mechanics, weather systems, or a serious career mode, because the physics here are a toy box, not a simulator.
- Endgame replayability matters to you; several finishers explicitly noted they wished there were more islands or progression after the credits.
- You primarily want to play with random strangers online, since co-op lobbies work best via friends list or invite codes, not open matchmaking.
If How to Fish is not quite your game
SIMILAR OPTION
Cat Mail Co.
Choose it ifPick Cat Mail Co. for a quiet evening of sorting cat post; pick How to Fish if you want the same cozy-short-game shape but with unhinged action comedy.
How it comparesShort, cozy single-or-multiplayer island game with a strong Steam Deck friendly pedigree. Cat Mail Co. is a deliberately sleepy parcel-sorting cozy game about a backlog of deliveries and hidden truths, whereas How to Fish turns the chaotic fishing knob all the way up with guns, bosses, and casinos.
SIMILAR OPTION · 30% OFF
Tinkerlands
Choose it ifChoose Tinkerlands if you want a deeper survival loop with up to four friends; choose How to Fish if you want a quick, low-friction co-op romp with shotguns and trick shots that you can finish in an evening.
How it comparesCozy-yet-chaotic co-op island exploration with crafting, fishing, and combat. Tinkerlands leans into survival-crafting base-building and magic on larger islands, while How to Fish is a shorter, weapons-forward trick-shot sandbox where the goal is gambling and rare-variant hunting rather than settling a frontier.
SIMILAR OPTION · 67% OFF
Risk of Rain 2
Choose it ifChoose Risk of Rain 2 (especially on its big discount) if you want hundreds of hours of replayable runs; choose How to Fish if you want a focused, cheap, one-evening co-op comedy with guns that look like fishing rods.
How it comparesOnline co-op third-person action where you fight escalating monsters and chase rare loot variants with friends. Risk of Rain 2 is a deep roguelike with long runs, dozens of unlockable characters, and intense build-crafting, while How to Fish is a fixed, compact campaign focused on trick-shot physics and gambling rather than meta progression.
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